Chapter 27
Xin Geling carried her forward and was just about to pass by a waste-sorting station.
Beside the waste-sorting station stood a disheveled woman, rummaging through the trash bins.
Suddenly, right under their eyes, that woman collapsed.
Xin Geling saw it and immediately walked over. As she put Xie Zhitang down, she said, “Is your foot all right?”
Xie Zhitang shook her head. “I’m fine. Let’s check on this auntie first. Why did she suddenly faint?”
Xin Geling crouched down with her and turned the fallen woman over. Just as Xie Zhitang was about to suggest whether they should take her to a clinic, Xin Geling said in surprise, “Li Fengzhu?”
Xie Zhitang asked, “Sister, you know her?”
Xin Geling said, “She was my prison mate.”
Xie Zhitang glanced at the woman on the ground. “Then why would she be here?”
Xin Geling shook her head. “I’m not sure. She committed theft. Apparently, when she went shopping in a convenience store before, she took away a bottle of Maotai the store manager had just bought and refused to admit it. The store manager reported her, and she was sentenced to a year and a half. But she should have been released half a month earlier than me.”
Hearing how complicated the woman’s situation was, Xie Zhitang said worriedly, “Should we take her to a clinic first?”
“Okay.” Xin Geling carried the woman on her back, while Xie Zhitang followed at her side in a light jog.
When they arrived at the clinic, the doctor quickly diagnosed her with hypoglycemia from hunger and put her on a bottle of glucose.
The two sat on the clinic’s long bench.
Xie Zhitang asked, “Can you contact her family?”
Xin Geling said, “Hard to say. We’ll have to wait until she wakes up. Right, don’t you need to go to work?”
Xie Zhitang glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s still early. I’ll stay here with you and wait for Auntie to wake up. Don’t you need to go to the farmers’ market to buy stock? Why don’t you go first? Otherwise, if you go late, there won’t be any meat sources left.”
Thinking of this situation, Xin Geling’s expression turned solemn. “Then I’ll go first. Wait here for me. I’ll be back soon.”
Xie Zhitang nodded. “Go. I’m here.”
Xin Geling could only go to the farmers’ market first to buy ingredients. After purchasing a batch of fresh meat, she brought it home.
“Mom, something came up. I’m going out for a bit.”
Lin Huailan was taking the ingredients on the floor one by one to the kitchen sink and had begun washing onions and ginger. “All right. If you have something to do, go take care of it first. Mom will get all these things ready for you at home.”
Although she could not touch chili powder, she could still help with these vegetables and meats.
With Lin Huailan’s help, Xin Geling thought that even if she went out to handle something, it would not delay the ingredient preparation, so she left with peace of mind.
Before she even reached the clinic, she received a call from Xie Zhitang. “Sister, Auntie is awake. Hurry over.”
“Okay. I’m coming right away.” After hanging up, Xin Geling ran straight there.
About three minutes later, she arrived at Linzhang Clinic. Xie Zhitang’s voice came from inside. “Auntie, where is your family?”
Xin Geling entered and called, “Xie Zhitang, I’m here.”
Xie Zhitang breathed a sigh of relief. She had finally come. This auntie would not listen no matter what she said and refused to answer her directly.
“Sister, come quickly.”
Xin Geling looked at the woman curled up on the bed and pressed her lips together. She stepped forward and crouched in front of the head of the bed, meeting the other woman’s eyes. “Li Fengzhu, I’m Xin Geling. When were you released? Where is your family?”
When the woman on the bed heard the three words “Xin Geling,” her eyes trembled. Through the gaps in her dirty, messy hair, her gaze stiffly shifted toward the woman crouching in front of her.
“If you don’t speak, we can only send you to the police station.”
“No!” The woman finally spoke. “Little Xin, don’t send me to the police station, wu wu wu.”
Hearing that she had responded, Xin Geling raised her head and exchanged a look with Xie Zhitang. “Tell me what happened. Where is your family?”
She remembered that Li Fengzhu was forty years old, from Yangling. She had a family, a husband and children. Back in the women’s prison, she had even told Xin Geling about her family situation.
Her husband loved her very much, and her children were filial too.
How had she ended up in Linzhang, disheveled and rummaging through trash bins?
Li Fengzhu looked at Xin Geling, then at Xie Zhitang. After struggling internally for a long time, she finally gritted her teeth, wiped her tears, and pitifully explained what she had gone through after being released from prison.
Only then did Xin Geling and Xie Zhitang learn that after Li Fengzhu was released, not only did her family not accept her, every one of them despised her. Her husband insisted on divorcing her, and her children were unwilling to acknowledge her as their mother because they disliked that she had been in prison. Even more, they despised the stain of her having gone to prison for theft. So when her husband filed for divorce, all the children voluntarily followed their father and did not want her as their mother.
The key point was that after Li Fengzhu got divorced, she did not receive a single cent, because all the assets had been transferred. During the year and a half she was in prison, her husband had occasionally visited her. Her prison mates all thought her husband loved her very much. Who would have known those few prison visits were to ask her for her bank card passwords, and she had foolishly given them to him.
After being divorced, Li Fengzhu could not accept the blow. Every day, she went to her husband and bitterly begged him to remarry her, begged her children not to abandon her as their mother.
But after she went too many times, the matter blew up. The neighbors all learned about her affairs and mocked her behind her back, pointing at her spine and laughing that she had been abandoned, that she deserved it, sneering that her hands were dirty and no man wanted her.
Families with children had their children curse at Li Fengzhu after school.
Until her ex-husband moved away overnight with the children and completely disappeared, Li Fengzhu suffered another heavy blow mentally. She wanted to return to her maternal home, but her parents had long since passed away. The remaining siblings had all formed families of their own. As for this relative who had been in prison and stolen things, forget helping her—even not treating her coldly was already good enough.
Just like that, penniless, Li Fengzhu wandered the streets. When she was hungry, she rummaged through trash bins for leftover food others did not want. Later, she learned to pick up cardboard, plastic bottles, and cans to sell as scrap, which could be exchanged for one clean meal.
But even like this, she often could not eat her fill. Today, she fainted because she had been hungry for too long.
After listening to Li Fengzhu finish talking about these experiences, the two fell silent. They had not expected her to encounter something like this.
The more Li Fengzhu thought about it, the more bitter and miserable she felt. She silently wiped her tears and cried out with soft sobs.
Xin Geling glanced at Xie Zhitang, then comforted Li Fengzhu. “Those things are all in the past. Don’t be sad anymore.”
Xie Zhitang asked, “Auntie Fengzhu, what plans do you have next?”
Li Fengzhu choked up, wallowing in misery. “Where else can I go? My life is already like this. I have nothing left, wu wu wu. My husband doesn’t want me. My son and daughter don’t want me either, wu wu wu. What meaning is there for me to keep living—”
Xin Geling felt a bit of a headache. She was not used to persuading people who talked about wanting to die to look on the bright side.
Xie Zhitang stepped forward and pulled Xin Geling up. “Since Auntie Fengzhu has her own thoughts, we’ll head back first.”
As she spoke, Xie Zhitang was about to pull Xin Geling away. She also did not like dealing with the troublesome affairs of people who kept going on about life and death.
In the end, this was only a prison mate Sister knew.
Xin Geling was pulled out by her, but suddenly, her other hand was grabbed by Li Fengzhu. “Little Xin! Don’t go. I have nowhere to go! Can you help me?”
Xie Zhitang could not pull her away. When she turned around, she heard Li Fengzhu say this, and her brows furrowed. “Auntie, if you have no food to eat and nowhere to live, you can work and earn money.”
Instead of clinging to others and making them support her.
Li Fengzhu said, “Of course I know I can work and earn money, but no one wants me. What can I do? Once they hear that I’ve been in prison, they refuse no matter what.”
As she spoke, she held Xin Geling’s hand and pleaded, “Little Xin, as long as you give me a mouthful of food and a place to stay, I’ll do anything you ask!”
Xin Geling rubbed her brow. “It’s not that I don’t want to help you, but my own home isn’t much better.”
Li Fengzhu begged bitterly, “I really only need one mouthful of food. Please be kind…”
Xin Geling pondered, then said calmly, “I can provide you with food and lodging, but you have to help me work.”
Li Fengzhu was overjoyed. “Okay, okay, okay. I’ll definitely work! Little Xin, you’re truly a good person. You’ll definitely be rewarded.”
Xin Geling turned back and gave Xie Zhitang a reassuring look. Xie Zhitang also breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Xin Geling was not taking everything onto herself, that was fine. She did not like this kind of person, but if Li Fengzhu knew gratitude and repaid kindness, she was also willing to give her a chance.
Their gazes met, reaching a consensus. Immediately after, both their eyes moved downward and landed on their clasped hands.
Xie Zhitang naturally let go first. “Let’s go back.”
Xin Geling’s gaze withdrew from Xie Zhitang and landed on Li Fengzhu. “You’ll have to change out of those clothes.”
Xin Geling brought Li Fengzhu back to the old residential complex and had her wait in the living room, while she went into the bedroom and briefly explained the cause and effect to Ms. Lin.
“Mom, Li Fengzhu is here to work. She won’t live and eat here for free. If you mind having her live with us, I’ll find her a rental place.”
As soon as Lin Huailan heard that there would be another mouth to feed at home, her brows furrowed tightly. But once she heard that Li Fengzhu was here to work, they relaxed again.
Still, she could not bear to spend those several hundred yuan on rent. “That costs too much money. Don’t we still have a storage room? Why don’t we tidy it up and put a bed in there?”
“Okay. I’ll go get a bed later. Right, Mom, do you have any extra clothes?”
Lin Huailan said, “She needs clothes, right? Wait. Mom has a few sets of old clothes. She can wear them.”
Xin Geling felt gratified that her mother understood and supported what she was doing. “Okay.”
She turned and went out, planning to get a bed, while Lin Huailan searched the wardrobe and pulled out a set of clothes for Li Fengzhu. “Go take a shower.”
Li Fengzhu accepted them gratefully. “Thank you, thank you. Sorry for the trouble.”
Lin Huailan went to play with Tangtang again, added a little food and water, then went to the kitchen to busy herself. After a while, Li Fengzhu came out and curiously watched her in the kitchen.
“What are you doing?”
Lin Huailan said, “Preparing barbecue ingredients.”
Li Fengzhu asked, “Little Xin went to sell barbecue?”
Lin Huailan said, “Mm.”
Li Fengzhu could roughly guess what she was supposed to do. She rolled up her sleeves and snatched the knife from Lin Huailan’s hand. “I’ll help you. I’m familiar with this kind of thing.”
Caught off guard, Lin Huailan was squeezed aside by her and stared wide-eyed as Li Fengzhu chopped onions so quickly that only afterimages seemed visible.
The kitchen was filled only with the constant chopping sounds of her knife striking the cutting board.
Before long, more than a dozen onions had been diced. Then she smashed and chopped the scallions, ginger, and garlic one by one.
“Your knife skills…” Lin Huailan was so shocked that she did not know what to say.
Li Fengzhu wiped off the scallions and garlic stuck to both sides of the blade and gave a dismissive sound. “I got used to it at home before. Before I got married, I helped my parents cook. After marriage, I cooked for the whole family. I have experience. What do we do next?”
Only then did Lin Huailan come back to herself belatedly. She opened the refrigerator and took out the meat inside. “My daughter bought this meat at the farmers’ market. These are the skewers we sell for barbecue. First cut them into strips, then cut them into meat cubes this big.”
Lin Huailan gestured the size with her hands. Li Fengzhu immediately understood. She skillfully shaved off an even slice of meat with the knife. “This knife is dull. Do you have a whetstone?”
“Yes, yes.” Lin Huailan pointed to the rectangular whetstone on the windowsill. Li Fengzhu sharpened the knife for two minutes, put the whetstone away, then picked up that large piece of beef. With the knife in her right hand tilted sideways, she drew it from the heel of the blade to the tip, and a large, thinner slice of meat came off, smooth beyond belief.
Immediately after, she stacked several slices of meat together, cut them into even strips, then gathered five or six strips together. With one cut, the meat cubes appeared. After a few more cuts, all the beef cubes had been prepared and neatly piled into a large basin.
Lin Huailan stared, dumbfounded. When Li Fengzhu turned to handle the lamb, Lin Huailan leaned over to inspect the basin of beef cubes, checking whether she had done it carelessly. How had she finished cutting them in the blink of an eye?!
But when she looked carefully, the beef cubes were extremely even, almost identical in size!
Her efficiency at cutting meat was even higher than her daughter’s!
Lin Huailan swallowed. Hearing movement at the living room entrance, she quickly ran over. Sure enough, her daughter had returned.
“Ms. Lin, I got a bed.” Xin Geling was just about to move it into the room when she heard Lin Huailan lean close to her ear and whisper:
“That Li Fengzhu you brought back—she works so efficiently!”
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